Proteas to rely heavily on quintet for English visit

By this time of year in normal circumstances, white-ball fever in domestic cricket would be growing an itch that would be difficult to ignore.

These are different times and in this tricky Covid-19 scenario, domestic cricket only returned last Monday in the form of the Four-Day Franchise series.

The 24-man Proteas squad for the forthcoming limited-overs series will be highly dependent on the quintet of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Anrich Nortje.

They have had varying stints in the IPL for their respective franchises, but their match readiness will be critical for SA as the Englishwere able to fit in a shortened but highly beneficial domestic and international season despite stringent Covid-19 restrictions.

Here’s how important these five South Africans will be for the six-match limited overs series against England.

Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje (Delhi Capitals)

This fast-bowling duo has been at the heart of everything good for the Delhi Capitals.

Their slight dip in form has also mirrored the team’s dipping fortunes, even though they were able to qualify for the IPL Playoffs in second place.

They went for a combined 1/92 in eight overs in the 57-run loss to finalists

Mumbai Indians on Thursday.

The first qualifier flop can still be rectified today when they face the Sunrisers Hyderabad but they’ve had largely blameless seasons.

At the time of going to print, Rabadawas second on thewicket-taking list with 25 scalps from 15 games at 19.48 while Nortje was tied fourth with 20 wickets from 14 outings. They’re fit, firing and, critically, have a fair bit of bowling mileage. Their match-readiness could have been a concern if they came in from the cold and needed to get into shape. Should they help their team get a rematch against the Mumbai Indians on Tuesday, they’ll give cricket lovers an even better idea of…

Quinton de Kock (Mumbai

Indians)

. . . How the Proteas limitedovers captain will be able to carry the batting load over the six matches in Paarl and Cape Town. He and Faf du Plessis are the only SA frontline batsmen who featured consistently in the IPL. With four 50s in his 15 games, it would be easy to say De Kock hasn’t found his natural fluency, but he’s also collected 483 runs in the process in a Mumbai Indians team that’s not been short of runs. He’s also the fifth-highest run maker this season, so there’s some form for De Kock, which can only be a good thing for . . . Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi (Chennai Super Kings)

. . . Du Plessis, who was the stand-out performer in an unnaturally underperforming Super Kings team while Ngidi didn’t have the best time of it with the ball. Du Plessis was the best performing Super Kings batsman with 449 runs at 40.81, but there was a lack of support and collective effort from the one mighty and ageing Super Kings outfit. Ngidi, a star with the ball in previous seasons, was sparsely used and incorrectly by MS Dhoni as the Super Kings failed to get out of first gear all season. They’ll be rested and ready though for an England side that’s properly primed for short-format cricket.